Planning Ahead

The first weekend of March 2009 is going to be a busy one.

March 6: Watchmen comes out
March 7: Sarah Vowell comes to Reston

Mark your calendars.

Catching Up: Part 1

The Pogues
930 Club
March 9, 2008

Ain't that a great cover. Five cds. One Hundred and Eleven tracks (beating out those pesky dalmatians by ten) only two of which I already have, or, to my knowledge, have ever been released on cd. The only problem?

It's so far only getting a European release.

Dammit.

Anyway, Jamee and I went to see The Pogues for the second time a couple of weeks ago. (Emily was there too, but since she buggered off to be with her friends in the balcony, I can't really say I saw the show with her, now can I?)

At this point, an review of a Pogues show that harps on Shane MacGowan's physical condition is cliche and pretty much missing of the point. Sure, he's in bad shape, but the fact that he's up on stage for most of two hours is impressive. And though he didn't do it this time, when we saw them two years ago he balanced a glass on the back of his hand for what seemed like a good minute. I don't even think I could do that.

But if we want to talk about a Pogue's health and well-being, let's reserve it for Philip Chevron. The show we saw was his third since rejoining the band after a fight with cancer. "Thousands Are Sailing" is a highlight of a Pogues show, but seeing the man back onstage that night was special.

What was surprising about the night was how tame the crowd was. I was in the balcony two years ago and the crowd on the floor looked nuts. I hold my brother-in-law-in-law responsible for that, and his absence this year may have contributed to the mellow crowd. Or it could have been that the previous show was their second appearance in the US with MacGowan in seventeen years. Regardless, even when the crowd was bugfuck crazy, what was notable was an enormous feeling of goodwill and joy from the people around me. I can't think of another show I've been to where you just end up talking to strangers, like my new best friend at this show, who was appreciative of my random ability to decipher Shane's banter, and who was even more appreciative when I stopped him from leaving by letting him know that a second encore was coming up.

But what was especially nice was when Jamee found me. She stayed outside to offload an extra ticket we had, and for the first twenty minutes of the show I couldn't find her. So I stayed put. The show was ok up that point, which was when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and there she was. Smiling. And I knew how much I loved her. Which was nice.

Everyone should have a moment like that.

How it Ends

I Am Legend
Bio-Zombie
DVD
M'House
March 2008

The post title comes from DeVotchKa, and their new album is really quite good. I hope we get the acrobats at the 930 Club show in May. I was going to do a ZOM-BEE MOV-EE post with these two movies after I watched Automaton Transfusion (which I have to give props for having a title that could not possibly appeal to anyone--and yet I rented it--UPDATE: watched five minutes and shut it off, it's that bad.), but both of these got me thinking about the importance of endings and how they really can make or break a movie.

Which is a good mindset to be in for watching No Country for Old Men again tonight.

I'll start with Bio-Zombie. It's a Japanese zombies-in-a-mall flick that offers subtitles in both English and something called Engrish. Or you can watch it with everybody dubbed as surfer-dudes. We started with Engrish, switched over to English and then at some point I fell asleep for a good fifteen minutes, so for me it ended up like it had a missing reel like in Planet Terror, because there was no way Jamee was gonna rewind.

Basically, it's an OK movie. Nothing special and "Zombies in a Japanese Mall" pretty much tells you everything you need to know. But the last scene really works and with it I went from thinking, "hey, this is allright" to "hey, this is all right." And since even my Japanophile friend Maria hasn't heard of it, I'm going to assume most everyone reading this has not seen it and I'll stop talking about the ending right now. But if you're into zombie flicks check it out. It's all right.

And then we watched I Am Legend.

Sometimes when you're watching a movie you can tell from the beginning that a particular character is doomed. I am Legend is one of these, and I'm not going to say who it is, though it's pretty obvious from the get-go. It's not Emma Thompson, though you can assume she buys it sometime between the first two scenes. So, anyway, I thought I am Legend was pretty darn good up until the aforementioned character dies. For a big-budget, PG-13 rated Will Smith movie, it's pretty intense and much grimmer that I expected, especially in the aforementioned death scene.

("Aforementioned" is the word of the day.)

Then the flick goes a little downhill. Maybe more than a little. The Shrek bit didn't really work for me the way it should have, because I already got the point that Neville was at the snapping point from being alone during the scene where he nearly breaks down in the video store.

But then we get to the end. Or, more specifically, then we get to the end of the theatrical cut. The last two minutes of this version of the film ruins everything good that came before it. Seriously, it's that bad. What happens is this (SPOILER TIME) - Neville blows himself up real good and we're left with an annoying character who shows up two-thirds of the way through the film who suddenly has a deeply stupid voice-over where they awkwardly try to explain the title. OK. There. Now you don't need to see the theatrical cut.

We immediately went online and tracked down the original ending. It works and it fits with the rest of the film. It's not necessarily a happy ending, but it offers hope, which in light of the preceding 100 minutes is a minor victory, but a victory nonetheless. If anything, it ends like the novella The Mist and is ambiguous and open without any real resolution. Which is probably exactly why they dropped it-- 'Cuz 'Mericans is stupid.

So, if you haven't seen I Am Legend yet, rent the bonus features disc and watch that version. It's not perfect, but there are worse ways to waste an hour-and-a-half (and it's called 30 Days of Night).

Justice League: The New Frontier
M'House
DVD
March 1, 2008

So I decided to show this to Tilda and her now six-year old cousin last week when Jamee and her sister were helping their parents movie. So what if it's got a PG-13 rating. Well, it starts off with someone shooting themselfves in the head, then Hal Jordan shoots someone in the head, and then there's a scene that shows you just what Wonder Woman's invisible jet would look like if the cockpit was splattered with blood. And they never really say whose blood it is.

But the girls were unfazed, and dare I say, kinda bored with it.

I thought it was great. It's a little short, only clocking in at 75 minutes, and from what I can tell a lot has been cut from the original miniseries, which I've never read. DC's published a nice Absolute Edition of it that, if if the animated film is only have as good as, is probably worth picking up. I've yet to see one of those oversized hardcovers that's a disappointment.

So, anyway, New Frontier is supposed to be a bridge between the Golden Age and the Silver Age of DC Comics. If you have no idea what that means, there's a nice bonus feature that goes through the history of the Justice League. It's short, but fairly comprehensive and even covers the Detroit years, of which the less said, the better. This is classic, though bloody, superhero stuff and I can't recommend it more any more highly.

Plus it's got Blackhawk in it.

February 08 Movie Round-Up Catch-Up

The King of Kong
The Killer Shrews
The Bourne Ultimatum
M'House
DVD
February 2008

So I missed posting about a few movies that I saw last month, so if I'm going to keep this up, I need to at least say something about them.
The King of Kong would play well as a double-feature with There Will be Blood. They're both about ambition and obsession and, well, maybe not greed in the case of Kong. And that's because King of Kong is about two men's obsessive desire to the the world's greatest Donkey Kong player, which in Japan is a feat that brings both honor and shame to your family at the exact same time.

I think I stole that last bit from Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Kong is a fascinating look at the subculture of competitive video game players. It's weird and freakish, and while the film sets up reigning champion Billy Mitchell as a bit of a Plainviewesque monster, I get the impression that's mainly through editing, and that although he is an egomaniac, he's probably not as bad as they make him look. It's weird, by the end of the movie you hate the guy, but if you look back, they do show him doing all sorts of nice things, especially towards the beginning. And he did help that nice old lady win a video game championship.

I can confirm that teh previous MST3K reference did not come from The Killer Shrews, which Jamee and I watched about a week ago. It's one of those low budget crap fests where they had so little money, they decided to try to create tension by having all the characters stand around in one room and drink martinis.

Except for the black guy. He has to stay outside and get eaten by dogs wearing carpet, which are supposed to be giant, venomous killer shrews.

Here's how stupid this movie is. Basically, the idea is that they're on an island overrun by the aforementioned giant, venomous killer shrews. There might be a hurricane coming (It's mentioned but sure don't look like it). So everybody tries to escape, but when the survivors reach their boat (which I presume that they intend to sail through the hurricane), one of them mentions that within 24 hours all of the shrews would have cannibalized themselves and the last surviving one would have starved to death. Which means that all they had to do is climb to the roof and wait it out. Which leads me to believe that some of these characters descendants moved to Alaska to be in 30 Days of Night.

And then there's The Bourne Ultimatum. I like these movies, but for me they're ultimately single-serving films. I really enjoy them while I'm watching them, but as soon as they're over, I can't remember a thing about them. Which probably means they'll hold up if I watch them again. But I really feel no desire to own any of them or watch them again, as great as they are.

But the thing that's perverse and baffling here, is that of the three movies in this post, the only one that I actually do own, is The Killer Shrews.

A POLITICAL AD I CAN BELIEVE IN


I so want to get an "I Believe in Harvey Dent" bumper sticker for my car. It's interesting to see that the Dark Knight advertising campaign seems to be shifting away from the Joker and towards Harvey Dent. I wonder what could have caused that.

Suck It

30 Days of Night
Kelly & Kevin's House
DVD
2/29/08

I was preparing to say something about the first line of No Country for Old Men being, "I was sheriff of this county when I was 25 years old," and how I could buy Tommy Lee Jones being sheriff at that age but not Josh Hartnett, but I'm not going to go for that.

There are so many more things wrong with this movie.

I'm not going to bitch about the pacing, because we had to frequently pause it when one of the children came into the room, usually right as something particularly horrible was about to happen on screen. But it does seem strange to jump forward by weeks in the story and just imply that absolutely nothing has happened during that time? What the hell are the vampires doing? Just hanging out? Do you mean to tell me that they didn't have time to go from house to house in order to see if they missed anybody?

This is one of those horror movies where people do stupid things just to move the plot along. OK, we've found a place to hide that's relatively safe? Are some people going to be dumb enough to go outside just to thin out the cast? You betcha. Are the survivors going to hide out for 29 days, knowing that the sun's about to come up and rescue is presumably on it's way, and then decide to break cover and reveal themselves to the monsters? Of course they are.

And what the hell is up with the light source? If the town is supposed to be plunged into darkness for thirty days, why is everything surprisingly well-lit every time someone goes outside? And where the hell are the vampires when they do?

I don't know if this played better in the theater with an audience, but I thought it was a sloppy mess. It had potential, but just kept coming up short. And it turns out what I thought was the coolest thing about the movie was just an error with setting up the DVD player. When we saw it, none of the vampire language dialog was subtitled, which was cool, even though they kinda sounded like dolphins. And then, towards the end, a single line of dialog popped up at the bottom of the screen. So, it turns out that the DVD player was set up in a way to cut off the subtitles, which actually worked in the movie's favor.

But ultimately, and I hate to use this to describe a vampire movie, 30 Days of Night sucked.

(For the record, I remember the comic being pretty good, and co-creator/writer Steve Niles is a great guy. And he signs things with a little fanged smiley-face. Which is nice.)

Music I'm looking forward to - 2008 Edition

So, it looks like there's a pile of new music coming out in the first half of 2008 that I'm already super-excited about, including two concerts in May that should be a lot of fun (and I do realize that I'm using "fun" to describe The Cure).

March 18 : DeVotchKa - "A Mad and Faithful Telling" - I blew my 2007 Oscar pool at work by voting for "Til The End of Time" from Little Miss Sunshine. I don't care if it didn't get nominated, it was the best song from a movie that year. My friend Kevin saw DeVotchKa live at a beer festival in Colorado, gave me some of their stuff and I've been hooked ever since. The new album release kinda snuck up on me, but based on the first single, "Transliterator," it should be good. Oh, who am I kidding, it should be good merely based on the fact that it's a DeVotchKa album.

And, tickets just went on sale for their May 16 show at the 930 Club, which may be the best concert deal of the year - $17.00 including surcharges.

March 25: Counting Crows - "Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings" - Jamee was always a bigger fan of Counting Crows than I was, and I've kind of written them off in the past few years. But, I'm fond of the free tracks that they released from the new album, so I'm hoping for good things. Itunes is doing a preorder that includes four bonus tracks for $11.99, which, if you don't have to have the physical CD and jewelcase, isn't a bad deal at all.

April 7: James - "Hey Ma" - This wasn't supposed to happen. James broke up years ago. They were a great band. I suppose they still are. I'm sure they still are. I saw them at the Boathouse in Norfolk during the Laid tour and it remains one of the best shows I've ever seen. And there's rumours of an international tour later this year. Which brings me to my only problem with the new James album, "Hey Ma." There's currently no US release planned, just like their last two studio albums. So that means import prices. But it's James, so it's worth it.

May 6?: The Cure - Currently Untitled - I gave up on the cure around the release of Wild Mood Swings, and didn't get back into them until the released the B-Sides collection taht I always wanted in high school and college because I couldn't afford the singles from Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me. I've been keeping up with them ever since, and though I was a bit disappointed with their last album, the deluxe reissues have been awesome. Jamee got me tickets to see them for Christmas, and the tour appears to be a greatest hits thing based on the setlists from Europe. They've also been playing three hour sets, which if that continues in the states, would be just perfect (You thought I was going to write "just like heaven" didn't you? Well, I didn't. OK, technically, I did.)

Who Knows?: The Pogues - Just Look Them Straight in the Eyes and Say 'Pogue Mahone'" - I don't even know if that's even the title. Five CDs of unreleased and uncollected Pogues stuff. Originally due out in March, now delayed to who knows when. It'll be worth the wait. And to tide things over, we're seeing them at the 930 Club next Sunday. Which, again, should be great.